Final Bracket (2018)

Davidson winning the A10 steals a bid…but from who? It very well might be the Irish. Thanks, Rhode Island.

I’m sticking to my guns that this committee is going to put them in, based on the comments by Bruce Rasmussen over the past few days. He repeatedly said that the Irish were a “unique situation” and there were multiple discussions in the room regarding their candidacy.

Is their resume alone strong enough to validate a bid? Probably not. But, look at all the other teams, and tell me definitively that someone deserves the bid over another. It’s a crapshoot. The committee absolutely took the Bonz/Farrell injuries into account, and that can only help their case. It all depends on if they were slotted as the last team in the field before today.

Late last night, Andy Katz asked Bruce what differentiates teams on the bubble, and he listed: 1) how a team fared away from home; 2) how a team did against other tournament teams; and 3) the schedule the team played.

Of the power conference teams on the bubble, the Irish have the most road/neutral wins.

From the day that the Top 16 teams were revealed, Bruce stressed the importance of road/neutral wins. Even without Bonz for 15 games and Farrell for 5 games, the Irish managed to pile up 9 wins away from home, including a win without both at Syracuse.

If they get in, you’ll hear Bruce reference this…guaranteed. If they don’t get in, it will be the losses to Ball State and Indiana.

Michael Reaves / Getty Images

What about the little guys? St. Mary’s and MTSU have more road wins because they play in lesser conferences. I don’t think either gets in, and precedent backs that up.